St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-09-15
ADVERTISING FRAUDS.
The Way the Public are Humbugged
and Business Men SwindIed.

and Business Men Swindled.
A st. JOhnsbury, newspaper came
out last week with startling headlines
and three columns of advertisements
in reading type on one of it's local pages
which purpOrted to be Cuisines
Directory, showing the leading firms
and individualsi in active trade in North
eastern Vermont" The whole thing
is misleading and belittling to the
business of our town and fraud up
on the public. The facts of the case
are briefly these A smooth tongued
stranger came to town and solicited
advertisements for a directory to be
printed at a certain printing Office. A
part of the contract was that these
cards should first appear i'll the col
umns of that paper. Individuals OF
firms who would pay the sum fixed by
the publishers, could have their names
and business advertised otherwise
they were omitted. In short it was
little Matchmaking scheme attempted
to be played upon the business houses
of our own town and a fraud on the
public at the same time. A black
mailing scheme because some who I'M
derstand the utter wOrthlessness of
such directory would rather pay the
three or five dollars demanded than to
have their names omitted, knowing at
fl,a fl,oE fln
would not be worth to them Grow of
pins;" and the people are humbugged
by having palmed off upon them what
purpOrts to be a directory" of the
business houses of our town with, in
some lines at least, all the important
houses omitted entirely! Take some
examples: Under the head of furni
ture dealers the leading houses and
prominent dealers in town, such as
Hall & Balch, G. A. CalderwOod, st.
Johnsbury Furniture company, ETC.,
are all omitted and only the name of
N. r. Switser appears in this alleged
"directOry." Under the head of tai
lors the name of E. G. Brooks appears
alone, and such prominent and old
Underwood, ETC., have no place in this
sO-called "directOry of the leading
firms of st. JOhnsbury." Of the half
dozen or more boot and shoe houses,
photographers, ETC., only one in each
business is given place in this "di-
rectory;" and SO on to the end of the
chapter. The reason for these Omis-
sions is simply that the parties declin-
ed to be blackmailed.
1t is astonishing how ready some
people are to bite at an advertising
scheme if the "sharp" who runs it is
only glib-tongued and a stranger; but
| a newspaper which gets it's living out
of the business men of the place, that
will for paltry sum lend its columns
to swindle its own patrons, is a new
enterprise here, and one of which the
Syndicate's Boomerang will have the
entire monopoly.
Since the above was written a copy
of the Burlington Free Press has come
to hand by which we infer the same
kind of swindle was attempted there
and probably by the same swindler.
In that case, however, the man collect
ed his pay in advance and decamped
without rendering even the service he
promised. But the service was of no
account anyway, and the whole scheme
only proves the old adage that fool
and his money are soon parted. We
copy briefly from the Free Press article
on fourth page and will give fuller de-
tails another week.